Lair by Carl Stubblefield (recommended reading TXT) 📕

their position in three-dimensional space, rendering his movements. An orange figure clearly represented the Mantids. It made him wonder how Nth from two different people interacted. His mind considered how telepaths must have some Nth scanning ability that could pick up on the signals of other—

“Hai!” Chop Chop shouted, brows furrowed and his lip even more pugged out than usual. Gus focused on the display again.

Gus watched a playback of the entire battle, then the scene reversed back to the beginning. Chop Chop would play the video and Gus could see on the display where he had overextended during the fight, and other times where his stance was too narrow. The playback slowed in areas where he had scored a hit, so he could see what was working in his battle style. Each hit displayed a red numerical value on how much damage had accrued per attack during the battle. He remembered that they had been there when fighting, but he could only focus on so much.

Gus leaned forward, studying what attacks were more effective. When the Mantid with Wreck-luse made its entry, the red numbers flashed in time as the toxin worked, -8 HP, -8 HP, -7 HP, -8 HP, and so on. Gus reviewed the areas where he needed improvement in his previous battle, rewinding to review critical hits and other times when he made an especially effective attack. After twenty minutes, he reached the end and Gus saw the prompt: ‘End Evaluation? (Y/N)’ Gus clicked yes and turned to face Chop Chop.

Another message was displayed:

Are you ready to begin the timed quest Fight for your Right? (Y/N)

Gus accepted and a timer appeared in the upper left of his display. Simultaneously, a hologram of a Mantid appeared, and Chop Chop demonstrated a technique to block an attack from the talons on the metal band that spanned the center of the shaft between where Gus usually gripped the spear.

Gus would have to search among the racks in the middle tier to find this upgraded type of spear, as he had only used spears that lacked this upgrade. The weapons were organized by type, but he saw no organization indicating which weapons dealt the most damage or which were superior. He mentally kicked himself for picking something so basic. Truth be told, he wasn’t trained to use it, so it may have not made any difference. Still, he needed every edge he could get.

Chop Chop used a variety of movements to place the metal band in just the right place to block various types of attacks. Gus winced at how close the claws came to Chop Chop’s hands when he did the blocks. Not a lot of room for error. After the tutorial, Chop Chop retreated to the side of the arena and froze in place.

Gus took that as a signal to find his weapons. He jogged up to the level where spears were. He searched until he found a spear with superior damage stats that also had the metal band in the middle. Grabbing three just like last time, he headed down to the arena.

Once again the virtual display showed Gus’ form in a stance in blue. He oriented himself, then practiced following the prescribed moves as the program directed his movements. Since it was a more complicated move, the program began moving in slow motion, allowing him to get the feel of the block. After about ten minutes, he felt like he had gotten the gist of the action.

One of the things that had helped the most when he was learning guitar was practicing at a slow speed until it was perfect, then slowly adding speed until the song was at normal tempo. Using that method, he avoided learning the song incorrectly, getting sloppy and repeating the same errors. It worked just as well with his spear training. Performing the motion like he was doing tai chi, he flowed through the pattern. A little tone sounded when he had executed correctly. After he got three tones in a row, Gus sped up a tiny bit. After fifteen more minutes of focused movement, a chime sounded.

You have learned the skill, Parry. You are now able to block certain attacks if attacked while equipped with a spear. This skill is upgradeable to Counter-attack!

100 XP awarded

200 FP awarded

“That’s new, Nick. Are all skills upgradeable?”

“Many are, but most are found by trial and error. Your Nth will try to increase and upgrade your skills as soon as you are ready, so you really are only limited by your diligence.”

Gus grinned. He was good at grinding in video games, and he could do it in real life if the rewards were there. He shook his head and focused his attention again on the display, not wanting his tendency to get distracted to slow his progression.

The display then changed to show Gus’ blue form, and an orange Mantid shape approaching and attacking. The Gus figure parried, deflecting the Mantid to the side, the representation then shifted, flowing into an attack on the follow through that hit the virtual Mantid in the back. The tutorial ended, and Gus again began practice in earnest.

The arena provided a virtual Mantid to practice against, and Gus found he could slow down the speed of his attacker to use his method to practice this technique. It was difficult to know if the timing was right without any feedback. Gus had to rely on the tingle feedback he had experienced yesterday to evaluate if he was executing the attack correctly, as he could not look up at the virtual display and keep his eyes on the Mantid attacking him. The extra concentration this required was harder to coordinate and start hearing success tones.

Gus had to take a break to let his stamina bar refill and get a drink. Wiping the sweat off his brow, he began again and had to get back into the groove. The short break had thrown off his form, and it took a couple minutes to